Abstract

The past 30 years have seen the introduction of a number of schemes for the treatment of acute bichloride of mercury poisoning. Until recently, none of them has proved to be generally effective in preventing death in severe cases.

BAL (2, 3-dimercaptopropanol) has been found to be an effective antidote for mercury poisoning. Peritoneal lavage as recently improved is a satisfactory procedure for the treatment of temporary anuric states. These advances make possible the formulation of a therapeutic regime which should enable us to save most of the patients who ingest and retain fatal doses of mercuric salts—even those seen